Welcome to Roses & Thorns. All books receive honest reviews, regardless of our sources. We are no longer accepting submissions. While the blog will remain live, I cannot continue reviewing books. My own writing is suffering from keeping up with two blogs. I will post my last review on May 29, 2017. Thank you Rose and Donna for your help, authors for the (mostly) great reading, and readers for following us.

Roses & Thorns

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Carman
has worn out more towns and last names than impractical shoes protecting the
secret of her magic blood. But when a friend goes missing, and another is
infected with a deadly spell, Carman must choose. Expose her magic blood by
curing the spell—or stop the infection from spreading by killing the source…the
grandmother. Magic bounty hunter Dylan has scoured libraries of banned magic
paraphernalia seeking a method to distinguish genuine witches from
impersonators. He suspects unorthodox librarian Carman might hold this
information tighter than the hair he’s dying to unleash from her bun. With a
past as hidden as his sleeve of tattoos, Dylan discovers he’s been used to gain
Carman’s trust, and their passion risks more than mixing mortals and magic.

About the Author:

Growing
up with four siblings had Maureen familiar with escaping into a good book, or
the recesses of her mind. She realized later in life everyone didn't have
characters telling stories in their heads, or weren't envisioning magic and
mayhem within the everyday. This, and long walks in the beautiful state of
Pennsylvania spawned a love of writing.

Since
her desire to become a Solid Gold Dancer was thwarted when the show was
discontinued, Maureen opted to pursue other paths. Writing stories proved
fruitful, while other endeavors, such as challenging a fear of heights with
parasailing, were unsuccessful. Therefore she's chased other interests, though
none-the-less-daring, but closer to the ground, such as belly-dancing, becoming
a self-proclaimed tequila connoisseur, fulfilling her role as biker babe to her
alpha hubby and surviving motherhood to twins.

She
pens stories boasting laughter, light suspense and something magical in the
hope of sharing her love of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary world.

Review by Rochelle:

I
really wanted to enjoy Grandma Must Die
and to an extent, I did. I liked the characters and the plot grabbed me and
kept my attention.

But
really, what has happened to editing? Where was the editor of this book? I know
we tell our authors not to use too many adverbs, but substituting adjectives is
not the answer; it’s just bad grammar. Grandma
Must Die was also full of sentence fragments. In fact, the final sentence
of Ms. Bonatch’s bio was a sentence fragment which I edited to read as a
sentence. It originally read “Penning stories boasting laughter, light suspense
and something magical in the hope of sharing her love of finding the
extraordinary in the ordinary world.” That’s not a sentence.Penning, boasting and finding are gerunds.
There is no subject and no verb in these lines. No one is doing anything. There
are a lot of instances in the book like this where I would read several lines,
and then go back to see what I’d missed because it went nowhere and I was
confused. Then I’d realize it was another fragment. That slowed the action
considerably.

The Wild
Rose Press needs to find some editors who at least know enough about grammar to
recognize problems and look up the solutions in The Chicago Manual of Style. It’s as simple as changing a gerund
like “Penning” to a noun and a verb like “She pens.” As for the
adverb/adjective dilemma, if you use a strong enough verb, you won’t need
either. When a person rushes to the door, they don’t need to do it quickly—or
worse yet, quick.

It’s bad
enough when an indie author has grammar problems, but it’s shameful when a book
that’s supposedly been edited has them.

As I
said, I liked the characters and the plot really engaged me, so while the
grammar made me want to toss my Kindle across the room, Grandma Must Die was good enough to overcome that obstacle and earn
four roses.

You’ll
notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors
usually receive 40-50% of the net proceeds from the publisher. Editors and
cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes
& Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the
author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left. So, if
a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author
will receive about $2.40-$2.99. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will
receive about $1.70-$2.10.

Download
the file from the publisher onto your computer as you would any other file.
I’ve created a folder for books on my computer, with subfolders by source
(Marketing for Romance Writers, Net Galley, Authors who find me on Kindle
lists, etc.). That way, if there’s a glitch with your Kindle, the books are on
your computer. Some publishers send books in all digital formats. If my Kindle
breaks and my kids buy me a Nook, I won’t have to replace all of my books. If
you have a Kindle and your hubby has a Nook, you won’t have to buy separate
copies, so buying directly from the publisher can save you money.

Moving
the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any
file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your e-reader
charging chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from
the folder into which you’ve downloaded the book to Documents/Books directory
on your e-reader. Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her
royalty statement.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Jeff
has twenty-four hours in Pamplona during his tour of Spain—a well-earned vacation
from his busy job as a Boston paralegal. Just enough to experience the first
day of the famous San Fermin festivals, to enjoy the celebrations, party all
night and, of course, take part in the Running of the Bulls. If he can flirt
with an attractive tourists or pretty local, so much the better: he’s a single
man and he’s not looking to change that.

Meeting
Idoia, he’s taken aback by her looks, and the fact she gives him the time of
day. She tells him she’s just practicing her English. He convinces her to join
him in the town square for the official start of the festival. In the crush
their bodies can’t help but touch the way he’d hoped. Idoia shows Jeff a side
of Pamplona he’d never have seen without her, but she’s dismayed at his plan to
run with the bulls. Jeff doesn’t want to upset Idoia, but his one night in
Pamplona will be incomplete without a bull run. Will their relationship last
the entire night, or will Idoia give up on Jeff as an arrogant idiot intent on needlessly
endangering himself?

Ten
percent (10%) of the author's royalties will be donated to WWF, the World
Wildlife Fund.

About the Author:

J. D.
Martins is a pseudonym. The author does not include his biography or photo
under this name.

Review by Rochelle:

It’s
probably a good thing Mr. Martins didn’t tell me One Night in Pamplona was an erotic romance. Chances are I would
not have reviewed it. I’m not fond of erotica. One sex scene per book is plenty
for me. By the third one, I was skimming the sex looking for more of the story.
Fortunately, even in seventy-five short pages, there was one.

My
all-time favorite account of the running of the bulls in Pamplona is in Terry
Pratchet’s Witches Abroad in a
chapter entitled “That Thing With the Bulls.” It’s a satire and funny as heck.

Mr.
Martins’ account of One Night in Pamplona
explains the festival that surrounds the tradition and the cruelty that fuels
it, as the bulls are prodded to stampede down the street. He also takes us on a
tour of Pamplona, describing the architecture and history of the town, all the
while drawing full characters and leading them through a steamy day and equally
steamy love story—in a novella. Kudos, Mr. Martins.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

For
high-powered personal injury attorney Noah Byron, the good things in life come
with a price tag—cars, houses, women. That’s why he represents only cases that
come with the possibility of a nice cut of the action. But as a favor to his
ex-wife, he meets with the mother of twelve-year-old Joel, a boy poisoned by
tainted children’s medicine. While the official story is that a psycho tampered
with bottles, the boy’s mother believes something much more sinister is at
work…and the trail leads right back to the pharmaceutical company.

As Noah
digs deeper into the case, he quickly finds himself up against a powerful
corporation that will protect itself at any cost. He also befriends young Joel
and breaks the number one rule of personal injury law: don’t make it personal.
Faced with the most menacing of opponents and the most vulnerable of clients,
Noah is determined to discover the truth and win justice for Joel—even if it
means losing everything else.

About the Author:

Victor
Methos is a former prosecutor and is currently a criminal defense attorney in
the Mountain West. He is the author of over forty books and several short story
and poetry collections.

After
completing his undergraduate education at the University of Utah, Mr. Methos
abandoned pursuing a doctorate in philosophy for law school. A partner at a law
firm he helped found, he has conducted over 100 criminal trials and has been
voted one of the most respected criminal lawyers in the West by Utah Business
Magazine.

Born in
Kabul, Afghanistan, and having lived throughout the world before settling in
the United States, Mr. Methos loves experiencing new cultures and peoples. His
current goal is climbing the Seven Summits, and hopefully not dying in the
process.

Review by Rochelle:

I can’t
quite believe I burned through 254 pages of An
Invisible Client in less than twenty-four hours, during which I got about five
hours of sleep interrupted by bathroom breaks and phone calls. It was riveting.

Coming
from a background of poverty and abuse, Noah Byron is all about money and the
power it brings. He studied law because it was lucrative and took almost as
many marketing as law courses. He freely admits he’s an ambulance chaser, but
he only accepts cases he can win with at least a six-figure payout—for him and
his firm. So why does he take the case of Joel, a twelve year-old boy poisoned
by tainted cough medicine? He looks into as a favor to his ex-wife, planning to
meet with the CEO of the pharmaceutical firm, get an apology and hear him say, “We’re
doing all we can to find the psycho who tainted that medicine.” Then he can
turn down the case and call his ex-wife to tell her he looked into it. But he’s
met not by the CEO, but the CEO, the company’s attorney, and a full phalanx of
attorney’s from his law firm. Noah decides there might actually be a case
there.

Then he
breaks his own rule number one. He meets Joel and finds himself becoming more
and more attached, even sleeping at the hospital. From there, he does whatever it
takes to bring the pharmaceutical company to justice—including turning down
seven-figure offers to settle with the usual non-disclosure agreements attached,
and telling his partners to back-off when they raise concerns about how much
the case is costing. No gag orders for Joel or his mom. It’s no longer about
the money.

Needless
to say, An Invisible Client was an
engaging, fast-paced book that sucked me in on page-one and kept me reading.
The characters were well-drawn and Noah’s transformation crept up on him,
causing him to dig into layers of his own psyche he’d long buried. Ya know, I
didn’t even notice if there were any editing glitches. How refreshing—a
self-published book that’s really
well done.

Don’t
start reading An Invisible Client if
you have any appointments or plans. You won’t be able to put it down, either.